Flawed Royal Charter will put our democracy at risk

THIS COUNTRY has the proudest tradition of democracy in the world.

All across the globe, Great Britain stands for fairness, decency, incorruptibility and personal and political freedom.

Underpinning all this is our free press. For 300 years now, institutions and members of our Government have been held to account in a way that ensures countless wrongdoings are brought to light. However, politicians are now trying to force through a Royal Charter that would severely limit what newspapers could do.

What kind of message does this send out to the tinpot dictatorships whose subjects long for freedoms such as ours? Also ask yourself: are politicians, still smarting from the expenses scandal, really the right people to decide what you should be allowed to read? The proposed charter is flawed on every level and has already come under attack from experts who warn that it is an assault on free speech.

For a start, the financial side of it flies in the face of common justice, with papers expected to pick up the costs even when they win a case. Where is the fairness in that? Then there is the fact that it would take only two-thirds of Parliament to change the composition of the press board. Just think what that would mean if another scandal such as MPs' expenses came to light.

Lord Leveson's recommendations were never meant to lead to the drawing up of a Royal Charter in a dirty backroom deal chaired over a pizza by the disgruntled members of Hacked Off. No, the idea was that the press would police itself in a stronger way than it has done until now.

For 300 years now, institutions and members of our Government have been held to account in a way that ensures countless wrongdoings are brought to light

It should be pointed out that only a tiny fraction of this industry engaged in wrongdoing in the recent past and although their actions have tainted the rest, the powers already exist to punish them and are indeed being used.

Even so, the media has been in agreement that we need regulators with teeth and came up with one of the most stringent codes in the Western world and yet still this is not enough for our MPs.

Newspapers and their valued readers must fight these proposals. Elsewhere in the world, under corrupt and violent dictatorships, the press is routinely muzzled. That must never be allowed to happen here.